The mainstream media is currently waging a campaign against the alternative and independent media including Global Research.
Progressive online media is accused of propagating “fake news”. Are these allegations justified?
Read this April 20, 2016 Global Research report on the MSM coverage of the March 2016 Brussels terror attacks. The corporate media routinely use fake images and videos
with a view to misleading the public in its coverage of controversial
events including the “war on terrorism”. Who are protagonists of “fake
news”?Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 13 February 2018
***After a month of exhaustive police investigations, the Belgian
authorities have identified and arrested the alleged (surviving) terror
mastermind of the airport bombing, the “man in the hat” Mohamed Abrini.
The other four alleged terrorists involved in the kamikaze bombing
attacks at the airport and the metro station are reported dead.
According to reports, Abrini was identified on a Brussels airport
still photo released by one or more airport video security surveillance
CCTV cameras.
This photo –which identifies three of the terror suspects– has become a central piece of evidence in the police investigation.
In this still photo, the mystery “man in the hat” allegedly Mohamed Abrini is seen accompanying the two alleged suicide bombers, who according to reports blew themselves up in Brussels airport.

\

Moreover, Abrini happens to be, according to French police
investigators, the main surviving suspect of the Paris November attacks.
The official story is that the attacks in both Paris and Brussels
were ordered by the ISIS, which just so happens to be supported by
Turkey and Saudi Arabia in close liaison with Washington and NATO
headquarters in Brussels. (The issue of US-NATO-Israel support of the
Islamic State is amply documented).
According to media reports:

The revelation that a Paris attacks suspect escorted two
of the Brussels bombers to their deaths at the city’s airport is the
strongest sign yet that the Islamic State attackers who brought mayhem
to both European cities — killing a total of 162 people — were
intimately linked. (See Guardian April 9, 2016)

Abrini is said to have confessed “his presence at the crime scene,” according to the official communiqueThe Authenticity of the Still Photo of the Three alleged Terrorists at Brussels Airport
Our analysis below will largely focus on the authenticity of the
still photo allegedly from the Brussels airport CCTV surveillance
cameras. CCTV systems are able to to take high resolution images on a
time lapse basis. The still picture could also have taken by
closed-circuit digital photography (CCDP), which is used to generate
still digital images.TIMELINE [March 22, 2016]
To address this issue, it is important to recall the timeline:7:55 am local time: “Surveillance footage shows
three suspected attackers exiting a taxi and pushing luggage trolleys
through Brussels Airport. Surveillance captured still images of the
three suspects.” (See image ab0ve)ONLY Three minutes later, it sounds absurd: Explosion According to reports the kamikaze bombers blow themselves up.7.55-7.57am: Very much in a hurry, Abrini is said to have left the airport between 7.55am and 7.57am. before the blast occurred at 7.58am7:58 am. Gunfire is reported in the departures terminal followed by an explosion. There were two blasts: a second blast erupts 10 seconds later.8.20 am: The airport is closed. all roads and railway to the airport are closed.9.07 am, DH.be (Dernière Heure), one of Belgium’s
largest print and online media released an exclusive video footage of
the bomb attack recorded by the CCTV surveillance cameras of the
airport. This video was aired on all major TV networks, the images went
round the World.The SOURCE OF THIS VIDEO released by Dh.be at 9.07am did
not emanate from the CCTV cameras of Brussels airport [22/03/216, DH.be
logo pasted on the Moscow 2011 footage], it was a rerun of a 2011 bomb attack at Moscow international airport. (see image below)
Below is the screenshot of DH’s video release.
Now compare this to

9:10 am: A blast is reported on a train at the Maalbeek metro subway station, near the headquarters of the European Commission.AGAIN: The video broadcast of the Maalbeek metro explosion
was not from the CCTV cameras as reported by the police and the media.
It was from the Minsk, Belarus metro bomb blast in April 2011.
(see photo scans at the foot of this article)
What we can conclude is that:
1) Dernière Heure broadcast a video of the Moscow airport bomb attack
instead of the Brussels blast (recorded by CCTV camera) airport attack.
Was it sloppy journalism or something else? This is a matter for the
police to investigate. (The broadcast of the video footage of the Minsk
metro attack was equally misleading).
2) The official CCTV airport security video was not available to Dernière Heure at 9.07am and the public was misled by the release of the Moscow video.
One would therefore assume that if the CCTV video footage of the
blast had been available to Dernière Heure, they would have broadcast it
instead of the Moscow footage.
3) Assuming that the airport CCTV video footage was not available to Dernière Heure at 9.07am, how
come they were able to get their hands on still images from the CCTV
video surveillance system showing the three alleged terrorists. 10.25am, less than an hour and a half following the
release of the “fake” Moscow CCTV surveillance video of the bomb attack
(i.e. Moscow) by Dernière Heure, a still image is released by Dernière
Heure of the three alleged suspects walking with trolleys in the airport
at 7.55am, three minutes before the first blast in the departure
terminal.
The image allegedly from an airport CCTV surveillance camera in the departure terminal was released by DH.be at 10.25am, it was tagged EXCLUSIVE, No other media had early access to this alleged airport CCTV video and the still images. The latter were presented with some confusion as photographic evidence pertaining to the identity of the terror suspects.
Most media reports acknowledged that the mysterious photo of the
alleged suicide bombers was released by the Brussels police rather than
DH.be.
The twitter entries below confirm the exact time at which the airport photos were released:First Release by DH.be at 10.27am (entitled “Photo Exclusive” by DH.be)

12.58pm, is the time at which the still image is
“officially” released by the police in liaison with the office of the
prosecutor. (procureur)Release by Politie Brussel/Police de Bruxelles: 12.58pm
In an unusual twist, it would appear that Dernière Heure had access
to the alleged CCTV still images from the surveillance cameras BEFORE
the police.
The media reported that the photo was from federal police sources and
was provided on the instructions of the federal prosecutor [procureur]:

DH.be released the still image of the three alleged terrorists at 10.25am, two and a half hours before its official release by Brussels police at 12.58pm,which suggests that the exclusive image published by Dernière Heure DID NOT emanate from the police authorities.
There is always the possibility that a police and/or airport
surveillance personnel made these still images available to Dernière
Heure prior to their official release by Brussels police at 12.58pm. It
is also possible that the still images were taken by a CCTV camera which
was live streaming and that this video livestream was accessible to
the public.
The third possibility is that the Brussels police took cognizance of
the photograph which Dernière Heure described as a still image from the
CCTV airport surveillance system and decided to release it without
verifying its original source.
On April 7, new video footage showing the man in the hat leaving the airport, circa 7.56am-7.57am was made public. The still image of him leaving the airport is stamped 7.54am

Now let us recap:
DH.be released both the Moscow 2011 video of the bomb attack at
9.07am (instead of the Brussels airport CCTV footage) as well as the
still image allegedly from the same CCTV airport source (in the
departure terminal) of the three terrorists at 10.25am.
Did DH.be have access to the security CCTV cameras?At 9.07am, they did not have access to the CCTV video footage.
They presented Moscow footage (in lieu of Brussels footage) at 9.07am
under the byline: “video de surveillance a l’aeroport”. They then
claimed that the still image released at 10.25am was from the same source, namely the CCTV camera system at Brussels airport, departure terminal.
Let us play the devil’s advocate: If DH.be had been in possession of the real surveillance video footage at 9.07am,
why on earth would they have released the Moscow airport footage and
then one and a half hours later come up with an allegedly authentic
image from the CCTV airport cameras.
There is another important caveat. While police and surveillance
authorities would be able to view and analyse almost immediately the
camera footage of the bomb explosion, the same does not apply to the
process of identifying three passengers with trolleys mingling amongst several hundred airline passengers also with trolleys in the departure terminal.
In other words, to identify three individuals from a large number of
airport CCTV cameras with hundreds of passengers travelling early
morning would not have been an easy fast-track undertaking: the still
images pertaining to hundreds of passengers would have had to be
examined, compared to police photographic records, etc: An almost
impossible task to achieve in a matter of two hours after the blast,
assuming that Dernière Heure had access to the CCTV surveillance video
data. Normally, journalists would not have had access to the CCTV
camera footage prior to the police authorities.
Moreover, the airport was immediately evacuated and closed down at 8.20am,
twenty-two minutes after the blast. A state of chaos prevailed. And we
are led to believe that the journalists of Dernière Heure managed in
collaboration with CCTV camera surveillance personnel and/or police to
get hold of the still image of three alleged terrorists, which they
released at 10.25am, prior to the conduct of a police investigation and less than two and half hours following the 7.58am bomb blast. Video 2 scan (Minsk Metro, April 2011)
Here is a screenshot of the Minsk 2011 video footage broadcast on
Belgian network TV and on the internet depicting the explosion in the
Metro in Brussels, March 22, 2016

Now Compare the above to the screenshot of the Minsk April 2011 attacks.

These are the questions for police investigators.

1. Why did Dernière Heure deliberately broadcast at 9.07am the video footage of the January 2011 Moscow airport terror attack?
Why did the media broadcast the video footage of a Minsk, Belarus
metro terror attack in 2011 in lieu of the surveillance video of the
metro?In other words both the metro and airport videos were “fake”.
2. Did Dernière Heure interface with Belgian police and intelligence
prior to releasing the Moscow airport video which was broadcast
Worldwide?
3. Who authorized the release of this fake video?
4. What are the legal implications of this negligence on the part of Dernière Heure?
5. Where did Dernière Heure get the still image from which they released as an EXCLUSIVE at 10.25am prior to the conduct of a police investigation?
6. Was there evidence of them having access to the CCTV cameras? Did
the CCTV airport surveillance personnel provide Dernière Heure with
access to CCTV footage? Assuming they did, how on earth did the Derniere
Heure journalists manage to single out a still image of three
passengers, establish and corroborate their identity in the absence of a
police investigation and without immediate access to police records.
7. Did the police corroborate the identity of these three individuals prior to 10.25am and communicate the results of their investigation to Dernière Heure?
Highly unlikely: lest we forget, the police released the still image at 12.58am,
two and a half hours later. By that time, the EXCLUSIVE picture by
Dernière Heure had been picked up by the news chain, it had circled the
globe prior to its official release by the Brussels police.Concluding Remarks
People in Belgium who are living the dramatic aftermath of this
national catastrophe and loss of life: Draw your own conclusions. Is
your government telling the truth?
The Belgian police, by addressing these seven questions, should be in
a position to establish the authenticity and the source of the still
pictures of the three men at the airport. Will they undertake this task?

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on
Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect
statement in this article.

It’s WMD all over again.Anonymous “US officials” are once again accusing a targeted
“regime” of using “chemical weapons” and threatening that the U.S.
military may have to “hold it accountable”. Once again, western media is
broadcasting these accusations and threats without skepticism or
investigation.
The Washington Post story is titled “Trump administration: Syria probably continuing to make, use chemical weapons”. Jane’s Defence Weekly quotes a U.S. official saying “They clearly think they can get away with this ….”Jerusalem Online says

“A US official says Syrian President Assad’s forces may
be developing new types of chemical weapons, which which could reach as
far as the US..”

“US officials have said the Syrian government may be
developing new types of chemical weapons, and President Donald Trump is
prepared to consider further military action…. President Bashar al Assad
is believed to have secretly kept part of Syria’s chemical weapons
stockpile….”

“If the international community does not take action now
. . . we will see more chemical weapons use, not just by Syria but by
non-state actors such as ISIS and beyond,” the first official said. “And
that use will spread to U.S. shores.”

Based on a review of facts from recent history, it is very likely the
story is false and is being broadcast to deceive the public in
preparation for new military aggression. Anyone who thinks that
politicians don’t consider timing and marketing needs to only recall the
statement of a GW Bush official that

“from a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.”

The “product” was the PR campaign to get the American public to accept the invasion of Iraq.
When is there going to be some accountability for the US military
industrial complex and their political and media enablers and promoters?
The invasion of Vietnam with over 500 thousand US soldiers was preceded by the phoney Gulf of Tonknin incident
where a US ship was supposedly attacked by a North Vietnamese vessel.
It was untrue and President Johnson knew it. The resolution was passed
unanimously (416-0) in the House and only Wayne Morse and Ernest
Gruening had the integrity and insight to oppose it in the Senate. Was
anyone ever held accountable for the lie that led to 55 thousand dead US
soldiers and millions of dead Vietnamese? No.
The 1991 attack on Iraq and subsequent massacre of Iraqi soldiers and civilians was preceded by the fabricated testimony
of the Kuwaiti Ambassador’s daughter pretending to be a nurse who had
witnessed Iraqi soldiers stealing incubators and leaving Kuwaiti babies
on the floor. Were the marketing officials Hill & Knowlton and
politicians such as Tom Lantos who managed this deceit ever held
accountable? No.
In 2003 the US launched the invasion of Iraq leading to the death of
over a million Iraqis based on the false and fabricated evidence
provided by the CIA and uncritically promoted by the mainstream media.
For example, Michael Gordonand Thomas Friedmanpromoted and lauded the invasion at the NY Times. Were they held to account? No, they carry right on to today.
In 2011 the US led NATO attacks on Libya with the stated purpose to
“protect civilians” from massacre. This was explained and encouraged by
journalists and pundits such as Nicholas Kristofand Juan Cole.
NATO officials bragged about their operation. After the brief western
euphoria, it became clear that the campaign was based on lies and the real result
was an explosion of extremism, massacres and and chaos which continues
to today. Accountability? None. One rarely hears about Libya today. Out
of sight, out of mind.
In August of 2013 we heard about a massive sarin gas attack on the
outskirts of Damascus. Human Rights Watch and others promoting a western
attack quickly accused the Syrian government. They asserted that Assad
had crossed Obama’s “red line” and the US needed to intervene directly.
Subsequent investigations
revealed the gas attack was not carried out by the Syrian government.
It was perpetrated by a Turkish supported terrorist faction with the
goal of pressuring the Obama administration to directly attack Syria.
Two Turkish parliamentarians presented evidence of Turkey’s involvement
in the transfer of sarin. Some of the best and most time-proven US
investigative journalists, including Robert Parryand Seymour Hersh,
researched and discovered the evidence points to Turkish supported
“rebels” not Syria. Despite the factual evidence exposing the “junk
heap” of false claims, mainstream media and their followers continue to
assert that Assad committed the crime.
In April 2017 it was the same thing: US and allies made accusations which were never proven and ultimately discredited.
The UN / OPCW investigation team never visited the scene of the crime.
They discovered the curious fact that dozens of victims in multiple
locations showed up at hospitals with symptoms of chemical injuries before the attack happened. This is strong evidence of fraud
but that investigation was not pursued. With or without awareness of
the deceit, Trump ordered missile strikes on a Syrian air base which
killed 13 people including four children. Accountability? None.
Recently it has become clear that dark forces in the US government ad
military do not intend to stop their efforts to destroy Syria. Despite confusion and
contradictory claims in the US administration, a core fact is that the
US is training and supplying a sectarian military militia inside
northern Syria against the wishes of the Syrian government. The US said
they were in Syria to get rid of ISIS but now that ISIS is largely gone,
the US military says it is not leaving. On the contrary, the US
military helped escort ISIS fighters from Raqqa to al Bukamal and the US is now training ISIS fighters to be reincarnated as yet another anti-Assad “rebel” force.
As always, US aggression needs some measure of political support. To
gain that, they need a justification. Thus it’s WMD all over again. Once
again. the “bad guys” are using chemical weapons on their own people.
Supposedly the Syrian government is incredibly stupid …. they just keep
on using chemical weapons and giving the US a justification to act as
judge, jury and executioner.
Most of the American public is too busy, distracted or overwhelmed
with problems to investigate U.S. government claims. Mainstream media,
including some alternative media, are failing badly. They are supposed
to be holding government to account, critically questioning the
assertions, investigating the facts, exposing contradictions and
falsehoods. Along with the politicians and government, they have some
responsibility for the ongoing wars and aggression. They all should be
accountable. When is that going to happen?
*

Rick Sterling is an investigative journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He can be reached at rsterling1@gmail.com

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on
Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect
statement in this article.

About Me

ROLAND SAN JUAN was a researcher, management consultant, inventor, a part time radio broadcaster and a publishing director. He died last November 25, 2008 after suffering a stroke. His staff will continue his unfinished work to inform the world of the untold truths. Please read Erick San Juan's articles at: ericksanjuan.blogspot.com This blog is dedicated to the late Max Soliven, a FILIPINO PATRIOT.
DISCLAIMER - We do not own or claim any rights to the articles presented in this blog. They are for information and reference only for whatever it's worth. They are copyrighted to their rightful owners.
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